WASHINGTON — Donald Trump made numerous large guarantees on the marketing campaign path about what he would do as president.
However within the weeks since he received the election, Trump and his transition staff have been quietly strolling again a few of his most important commitments — a mirrored image of how unrealistic they have been to start with.
Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
Ukraine
All through his marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly bragged that he was uniquely positioned to resolve Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In March 2023, he mentioned he might “fix” the battle earlier than he was even inaugurated.
“I would fix that within 24 hours, and if I win, before I get into the office, I will have that war settled,” the president-elect mentioned in a Fox Information interview with Sean Hannity. “100% sure.”
Trump mentioned the identical factor in Could 2023 throughout a CNN city corridor — “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours” — and once more in June 2024.
However on Wednesday, two of his advisers conceded that isn’t going to occur.
It would take months and even longer to resolve the battle, which has been occurring since February 2022, Trump’s associates instructed Reuters. They chalked up Trump’s guarantees to rapidly finish the battle to “campaign bluster” and “a lack of appreciation of the intractability of the conflict and the time it takes to staff up a new administration,” per Reuters.
Trump himself backpedaled on this promise final week, saying throughout a Mar-a-Lago information convention that his “hope” is to attempt to get a deal in six months.

Lowering Grocery Prices
In another vow that was central to his campaign, Trump said he would magically halt inflation and bring down the costs of everyone’s groceries.
“We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down, we have to get them down,” he said at a rally in September. “It’s too much. Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down.”
Trump said the same thing a month later at another rally: “We will cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to America.”
But shortly after the election, Trump was already moving the goal posts, conceding it would be impossible for him to single-handedly lower the costs of consumer goods.
“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” the president-elect said in a November interview with Time. “You know, it’s very hard.”

Kent Nishimura via Getty Images
Jan. 6 Pardons
Vice President-elect JD Vance is lowering expectations for Trump’s repeated but vague plans to release his supporters from prison who were convicted for their roles in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which Trump infamously egged on in an effort to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as president.
In March, Trump promised he would “free” Jan. 6 rioters in considered one of his first acts as president if reelected. He didn’t say how many individuals he would pardon, however prompt it might be tons of. Greater than 1,000 rioters have been sentenced for the reason that violent assault, with more than 700 of them spending at least some time in prison.
“I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” Trump declared at a CNN town hall in May 2023. He added later, “I would say it will be a large portion of them, and it would be early on.”
On Sunday, Vance drew the ire of a few of Trump’s most diehard backers by saying in a Fox News interview that the president-elect would not be issuing blanket pardons to everyone charged in the riot.
“If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6 … you should be pardoned,” Vance said. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
“There’s a little bit of a gray area there,” he added.

Slashing Government Spending
A few of Trump’s high-profile associates are strolling again their grand plans too, now that the election is over. Billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump tapped to guide a nongovernment advisory panel referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, beforehand talked an enormous recreation about utilizing the panel to chop “at least” $2 trillion in authorities spending.
The Countdown To Trump Is On
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
Musk admitted last week that the greenback quantity was aspirational. Slashing $2 trillion from the $6.8 trillion federal funds can be a “best-case outcome,” he mentioned in an interview on his social media platform, X, formerly called Twitter, and added that the reality is DOGE has a “good shot” at cutting maybe half of that amount.
A Trump transition spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about all these campaign promises being scaled back before the president-elect has even taken office.